Educating Kids

It's important to educate your kids about discrimination and why it is wrong to do it. For example, at church...kids stare at people with special needs and it makes the people with special needs feel excluded.

How to educate kids about special needs:

• Watch a play or TV show about people with special needs. Example: Life Goes on and Monica and David

• Read books about special needs. Example: The Canadian Down Syndrome Society wrote a book called "Mind and Body: Answers to your Questions"

• Listen to advocates for Down Syndrome. Examples: Megan Bomgaars, DeOndra Dixon, Colin Farrell

• Organize a fundraiser with your kids

• Find kid-friendly online website resources: https://kidshealth.org/en/kids/down-syndrome.html

• Celebrate Down Syndrome day with educational activities with your kids. This is on March 21st.

More information for parents to talk to their kids:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/parenting/wp/2014/04/28/how-to-talk-to-your-child-about-people-with-disabilities/

Please educate yourself and your kids by going online and trying to understand instead of judging...we are just like everyone else...we are actors, cooks, parents, sisters, brothers, and so on.

The Canadian Down Syndrome society has a whole education section as well, including classroom resources for teachers to teach their kids about down syndrome.

If you want to get involved in advocacy, I am part of the group Voices at The Table Advocacy Committee, which you can find out more about on the Canadian Down Syndrome Society website: https://cdss.ca/